


just for a little while

by Tea_For_One_Please



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, But it's fine!, Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hopeful Ending, M/M, One Shot, Post-Canon, because I messed up and forgot their ages, carlos is a year older, set 18 months after the end of season 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:14:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22752355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tea_For_One_Please/pseuds/Tea_For_One_Please
Summary: On the night of Carlos' graduation, he and Seb camp out in Seb's barn overnight.
Relationships: Seb Matthew-Smith/Carlos Rodriguez
Comments: 6
Kudos: 41





	just for a little while

“Is it okay that we’re out here?” Carlos asks doubtfully. As the June evening comes to a close, they’re in the loft of the Matthew-Smiths’ barn, with everything they might need for the night – snacks, enough blankets to cover Utah, and Seb’s laptop, complete with a few downloaded movies. It’s not completely dark yet, and the last rays of the pink sunset stream through the big circular window set into the panelled wall.

“Sure it’s okay,” Seb says with a smile, carefully laying blankets down on the hay to make it more comfortable to lie on. “We come out here all the time.”

“I mean sleeping out here,” Carlos says, passing him another blanket from the pile. “We’ve never done that before.”

“Well, if my mom and dad find out at all, it won’t be until the morning,” Seb shrugs. “And it’ll be too late by then,” he adds mischievously.

“That’s… reassuring,” says Carlos, raising an eyebrow, and Seb laughs.

“Don’t worry about it,” he says, sinking down into the hay pile and holding out an inviting hand to Carlos. “They won’t notice – that’s the good thing about having a big family, you tend to go unnoticed.”

He’s joking, but Carlos knows he often feels overlooked, and doesn’t laugh. Instead, he holds Seb’s hand for support as he lowers himself gingerly onto the hay next to his boyfriend. “Hi,” Seb says softly, smiling as he leans in to kiss Carlos.

“Hey,” Carlos murmurs, running a hand through the back of Seb’s hair. It’s thicker than usual, and Seb keeps insisting that he needs to get it cut. Carlos has been attempting to talk him out of it though, as he rather likes it longer. He winds a few strands around a finger as they kiss, and feels Seb suck in a breath.

“Happy summer vacation,” Seb grins as they break away.

“Ugh, thank God,” Carlos groans, chuckling as he flops back into the hay and turns his head to look at Seb. “I thought finals would never end.”

“How does it feel to have graduated?” Seb asks, and Carlos grimaces.

“Terrifying.”

“And just think,” Seb muses. “Three months from now, you’ll be, I don’t know, hitting up some wild fraternity party in Cedar City.” Carlos goes silent, and Seb knows what he’s thinking about.

“So, uh,” he says hesitantly.

“Don’t,” says Seb gently. Carlos blinks in surprise.

“You don’t know what I was going to say.”

“I can guess,” Seb says, biting his lip. “You were going to ask what happens with us while you’re at college, right?” Carlos nods, and Seb slips his hand into Carlos’, lacing their fingers together. “What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know,” Carlos admits, and Seb thinks a moment.

“Well, do you want to break up?” he says, his voice faltering on the final two words.

“No! God, no,” Carlos says. “Do you?”

“What do you think?”

“It’s just…” Carlos hesitates. “Long-distance is hard, even when it’s only, like, three hours.”

“I know,” Seb says, smiling sadly. “But at least it is only three hours, right? I can come visit, and you can come visit, and…” He trails off, unsure of what to say.

“Yeah,” says Carlos quietly. They’re silent for a moment, both reflecting, and listening to the cows shuffling about below them. Outside, the crows _caw_ to each other as they return to their trees to roost. Two pigeons fly through the window, mildly startling Carlos, and settle down together on one of the rafter beams. One buries its head in the other’s wing, and Seb smiles. Carlos looks at him, eyes soft, and says, “You know I love you, right?”

“Actually I hadn’t heard,” Seb teases. Carlos nudges him with his shoulder, but smiles, relieved that they’re okay. “You’re okay, I guess.” Carlos laughs and _thwacks_ his chest with his free hand.

“Asshole.”

“I’m joking,” Seb says with a chuckle, shuffling down and leaning his head on Carlos’ shoulder. “Obviously I love you too.” They sit in comfortable silence for a moment longer, and then Seb suggests a film, to which Carlos readily agrees.

Carlos falls asleep before he the end, as he often does. In fact, Seb thinks with a smile, he can’t think of a time when they’ve watched a movie together and Carlos hasn’t dozed off. Except for musicals, of course – musicals are sacred. By now, the sky’s turned completely dark, except for the glow of lights from the city a mile or so away. Seb eases himself out from his position at Carlos’ side, who slumps to the side and shifts into a better position, but doesn’t wake up.

Crossing the loft, he hoists himself up onto the curved windowsill and settles down. It’s wide enough to be safe, despite the twelve-foot drop to the ground on the other side; besides, he’s done this hundreds of times. He leans back and gazes out at the night sky, his thoughts still on the future. Until tonight, it never occurred to him that it might be a problem that Carlos has graduated before him. It was always sort of nice, being only about five months apart in age, but being in different grades. They got to see each other in school, but didn’t have the frustrations that some of the others did of seeing _too_ much of each other. They were never tempted to just hang out with each other, and not talk to anyone else, because they didn’t have that option. They hung out at breaks and after school, and could tell stories about their days, because the other wasn’t there to experience them.

Now, though, it’s sort of hitting him for the first time that this was the last year where that was true. The stars in the sky turn suddenly blurry, and he wipes his eyes on his sleeve. Now that he’s started, though, he can’t stop, and his shoulders start to shake, tears pouring down his face, hand clamped over his mouth in an effort to stay silent. Perhaps he wasn’t quite succeeding, though, because after a minute or two he hears Carlos stirring. He hastily dries his face and takes some deep, shaky breaths until he hears his name mumbled from the makeshift bed. “Over here,” he says, voice weaker than he’d have liked.

“What are you doing over there?” Carlos exclaims, suddenly a lot more awake. “Get down, you’ll fall!” Seb doesn’t have it in him to argue. Returning to the hay pile, he turns onto his side and leans against the hay so he can look at Carlos. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Seb says quietly. “Just been thinking.” He’s grateful that it’s too dark for Carlos to see that he’s been crying.

“Hey,” says Carlos, turning as well so he’s mirroring Seb’s position. “We’re going to have the most amazing summer.”

“Yeah?” Seb says, perfectly willing to hear some optimism. “What are we going to do?”

“Whatever we want,” Carlos says, sliding a hand into Seb’s. “We could drive out to the lake and sleep under the stars. We could organise a mass sleepover with the others, and stay up all night playing games and telling stories.”

“We’re going to the pride parade next week,” Seb chips in.

“We could visit another city for the day and make up new identities,” Carlos says, and Seb laughs.

“I’ve always wanted to try that.”

“Be nice, wouldn’t it?” Carlos says, smiling. “Just us, being whoever we want, leaving everything behind, just for a little while.” They fall quiet for a moment before Carlos speaks again. “Let’s not spend the whole vacation feeling sad that it’ll end, yeah?” Seb nods.

“I’ll try.”

“Thanks.” He leans over and kisses Seb’s forehead. “So what’s the plan for tomorrow?”

Seb hums, thinking. “Oh yeah, Ashlyn’s post-graduation party!”

“I totally forgot about that,” Carlos says brightly. “Is everyone going?”

“I think so.”

“That’ll be nice,” Carlos says contentedly. Seb hums an affirmative and closes his eyes, suddenly tired. “We’re going to be okay, Seb,” he says softly, as though he’s saying it more to himself.

“Yeah,” he mumbles, shuffling into a more horizontal position. “Love you.”

“Love you too,” Carlos says fondly, leaning over to kiss his cheek. Seb smiles, and Carlos looks at him a moment longer, before taking off his glasses and settling himself up against Seb. Below them, one of the sleeping cows exhales with a grunt and the doves on the rafters shuffle along the beam an inch or two. Otherwise, though, the barn is quiet until the sun starts to cast the first rays of dawn onto the fields and onto the first day of summer.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this was supposed to be pure fluff, but the story had different ideas. Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Please do leave a comment with your thoughts, or else check out my Tumblr (@tea-for-one-please) and hit me up on there!


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